The Grebe

Grebes come to the Halibut Point coastline when interior lakes freeze over. It's a solitary phase in the bird's year. We who roam the shore appreciate the diversity of birds flying, floating, and diving in this frigid season, no matter how drab their plumage. Paradoxically, there's more to see on the ocean in winter than in summer.



Horned grebe

How does this ball of fluff with a matchstick bill survive the blustery maritime? Obviously it is buoyant, dry at the skin, and well insulated. When it dives it can squeeze the air out of its feathers and flatten them to its body to improve speed and agility for chasing fish.

 
A glimpse at its outsized propulsion system indicates the grebe's advantage under water, both in covering distance and darting after its prey.

A grebe's lobed foot

It swims by spreading out its feet laterally and bringing them inward, producing forward thrust in much the same way as a frog. Unlike the full webbing of the loon's foot, the lobes along each toe make fine steering articulations possible. Recent experimental work has shown that these lobes work like the hydrofoil blades of a propeller [Wikipedia].

 

As soon as possible in the spring Horned grebes return to their nesting grounds in wetlands from Wisconsin and Central Canada westward to Alaska, where they molt into breeding plumage.

Horned grebe in breeding plumage
(Internet photo)
 

A photo from that distant place shows how the Horned grebe gets its name. Unfortunately we miss this vivid part of its plumage cycle, its complex courtship dance holding reeds in its mouth, and the chicks scrambling onto their parents' backs for a rest.

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Your other likely grebe sighting at Halibut Point would be the Red-necked grebe.



Red-necked grebe, winter

Larger than the Horned grebe, and with a stout partially yellow bill and long neck, it resembles a diminutive Common loon.

Captured

Thrashed

Swallowed

The Red-necked grebe often brings a fish to the surface to subdue and then swallow it head first, spines pointing to the rear.

Red-necked grebe and Razorbill flying past Halibut Point
Note this species' characteristic "hump-backed" flight posture.

Grebes have unusual plumage, dense and waterproof. On the underside feathers grow at right-angles to the skin, sticking straight out to begin with and curling at the tip. Grebes can collapse these feathers to adjust their buoyancy in the water.

Red-necked grebe in breeding plumage
(Internet photo)

Red-necked grebes and Horned grebes return to similar breeding grounds. They are holarctic species, nesting and wintering in circumpolar territories of North American and Eurasia.